


arrows and ribbons

by misschevalier



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Halloween, M/M, Magic, Witches, lots of souls wandering around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 06:24:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5118485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misschevalier/pseuds/misschevalier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seeing spirits and having magic isn’t something new for Matt.</p><p>But, at some point, it was something very new.</p>
            </blockquote>





	arrows and ribbons

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween! The inspiration of writing this fic came to me when wandering through [annaxiin’s art](http://annaxiin.tumblr.com/tagged/art), because it’s gorgeous and it’s really strange, I love it. I really enjoyed writing this one because I had the liberties of making things up and it was really fun.
> 
> Enjoy!

 

Seeing spirits and having magic isn’t something new for Matt.

But, at some point, it was something very new.

When he was younger, he remembered waking up by strange sounds outside his window. Any kid would be afraid because it was just like the scary movies but Matt felt alright, he felt safe and there wasn’t any hesitation to get out of bed at that hour.

He tiptoed by his parent’s room and opened the front door, finding himself with an alive neighborhood, as if it didn’t matter it was two in the morning. Kids were running down the street, smiling, a dog following behind. In the porches of the other houses, there were many people sitting and watching the kids, talking to each other but Matt couldn’t hear anything- it was as if they weren’t talking the same language as him.

He sat down on the small stairs of his house and observed them, in silence: he observed their blue hue that their skin had, the soft glow in their chests, the muffled noises that came out from their mouths, sounds that he couldn’t really focus on.

A man with white eyes and blue skin appeared beside him and smiled at him, a somewhat warm smile that made Matt feel at home even when he was at his own home. The man sat beside him, in silence.

That’s when everything started.

When Matt walked down the stairs to meet his parents in the kitchen the next morning, the first thing he noticed were the blue arrows sticking out of his mother’s neck and shoulders, their weight pushing her shoulders down as if it hurt to carry them.

His father had the same blue arrows but on his chest, across his heart, decorated with roses, and Matt saw the pained expression he had whenever he glanced at his mother.

(He never mentioned it, he learned that people carried their problems in different ways and shapes

and he wasn’t surprised when they told him about their divorce.)

-

-

It was in middle school when he saw the first Marked person.

He was walking through the halls when he looked up and something caught his attention: a bright blue flame over a girl’s head. She was talking with some of his friends and Matt couldn’t stop looking because the light looked beautiful over her orange hair; he couldn’t take his eyes off of her until the bell rang.

It didn’t matter that he tried his best not to stare, the light was impossible to ignore. Wherever Matt walked down the hall, he would find the light over her head easily, hidden under the sea of persons and the arrows and ribbons on everyone present, along with some spirits walking among them.

One day, accidentally, he stumbled with her and his arm brushed hers. He apologized and she shrug him off, not remotely interested on his words. When he looked at her walking away, the light over her head stopped being blue to become white and Matt found it strange.

Every day he saw her, the white light started to become dim and faint. Matt wasn’t sure what was going to happen after it went away but the muffle spirit’s noise that came out from her was almost sickening to him.

Two weeks later, she died.

(He almost felt guilty but something inside of him told him that it was meant to happen.)

-

-

Matt was twenty when he started feeling a tingling sensation on his fingertips that, in the night, when he was falling asleep, it ran through his body and found itself a home on his chest, right in the middle.

He was sitting in front of his computer, writing an essay for a class when he stopped, rubbing his eyes furiously. Working on the same thing for a few hours without taking a break was starting to get tiring so he got up, taking his empty cup with him.

Walking to the small kitchen his shared apartment had, he left the cup on the counter to then search for another bag of tea in the cabinets. Without noticing, he left the cup too close to the edge of the counter and, accidentally, he bumped it with his elbow.

The cup was falling and suddenly, it wasn’t.

Matt opened his eyes wide, his hand was extended as if he was trying to stop the falling cup and the burning sensation on his hand was everything but pleasant. He pulled his hand away quickly and the cup fell into the ground with a few clinking noises.

His hand hurt a lot after that.

(And it hurt a lot more when he started practicing around. One day, it stopped hurting,

the tingling sensation was still there and a small warmth on his chest appeared on his chest.)

-

-

One became two and two, somehow, six.

And to Matt, seven seemed like the perfect number.

Being able to wake up every day and walk into the kitchen to find his boyfriends there, some of them more sleep than awake, was something that Matt loved. Even when some morning there was nothing but arrows and ribbons pressed up against their bodies, their blue glows impossible to ignore and almost distracting.

Lawrence had arrows around his abdomen and arms, disappearing into his muscles and bones, and those hurt Matt whenever the other man gave him a hug, as if they were needles; he could understand for a few mere seconds how Lawrence felt about his body some days.

Joel had arrows pointing at his head, sometimes stuck on his curly hair, and if Matt looked at him when walking, he would notice the arrows following Joel around. Matt couldn’t help but smile whenever one of the boys would come up to Joel and say something nice, something reassuring him that they loved him, because one arrow would stop, drop and fade before it hitting the floor.

James had an ribbon around his biceps some days and Matt noticed how he exercised even more when they appeared. Those days he seemed to be on the edge, his tongue quicker and sharper with each comment and his eyes almost dull, but with time, the blue glowing ribbons would go away.

Adam’s had an arrow on his neck, the ends of it appearing over his shoulders, curling as if gravity was pulling it down. The days that it appeared, he didn’t talk as much, he barely laughed and he’d spent his morning hunched over his desk but, with arrow or not, everyone would notice the change in him and sometimes, at the end of the day, the arrow would be faint and flick, close to vanishing.

Bruce reminder Matt of his mother, the blue arrows sticking out of his neck and shoulders. They weren’t as sharp and long as hers but he had so many Matt stopped counting years ago.

The only thing was that Bruce’s arrows never left his body, there were always there and Matt was the only one that could help him: when everyone was sleep, Matt would sit on bed and take some of Bruce’s arrows, ignoring the painful burning sensation that left on his hands- as if they weren’t meant to be taken out. He would do it every night if possible because seeing Bruce waking up rested was something that made Matt happy.

Sean was something Matt had never seen. When he first met the boy, he didn’t see any ribbons or arrows on him and Matt found it strange because, well, everyone has problems.

It took him time, when all of them started this relationship, to discover Sean’s problems. He walked into the living room one late night when he heard leaves being crushed by his feet; he followed the trail to find Sean and James on the living room floor, wrestling, and Sean’s hat lying on the floor, filled with old leaves.

Even when some morning there was nothing but arrows and ribbons pressed up against their bodies, their blue glows impossible to ignore and almost distracting, it didn’t matter to Matt because having them around, laughing and smiling and working in something that they were passionate about was something that he thought he would never find in someone.

(And to Matt, seven was the perfect number.)

-

-

At first, all of them knew that Matt was something special.

Yet, neither of them believe him when he told them about the spirits and the arrows and ribbons.

Matt could have easily showed them his magic, his way of making things move around, but he decided against it. If they didn’t believe him, it was alright, he wasn’t very normal person and he wasn’t going to lose time making them believe something he only saw, that to their eyes didn’t exist.

Sean woke up and shifted on the bed, trying to get away from Adam’s arms, so he could get up. After a trip to the bathroom, he noticed an empty spot on the bed that belonged to Matt; he was curious and walked checking the rooms upstairs and downstairs, noticing that Matt wasn’t anywhere.

He returned to the bedroom and hesitated before shaking Adam awake, telling him that he couldn’t find Matt. If Sean didn’t have that panicked tone sweeping into his voice, Adam would have turned around and go back to sleep but this wasn’t the situation. The commotion and the talking woke up the others and soon enough, all of them were worryingly searching for Matt.

It was James who found him.

“Did we left something outside?” He asked Joel, pointing at the dark shape on the backyard, on top of the grass. Joel frowned and shook his head, telling him that wasn’t there before they went to sleep. James didn’t even wait for him to stop talking when he opened the door and almost ran to Matt.

He started calling him, pressing his hand on Matt’s cheek, noticing how cold he was. Joel almost gasped when he saw James’ taking Matt on his arms and bringing him outside with hurry and it was his voice calling Matt’s name what brought everyone running to the living room.

It took Matt a few minutes to come back to reality.

He was met by his boyfriend worried eyes and tired faces. Lawrence help him sit down but before any of them could ask if he was alright, what the fuck was he doing outside, why he was sleeping or passed out on top of the grass, Matt spoke with his eyes glued to Bruce’s.

“You had a sister.” Those words took air out of Bruce because, yes, he had a sister, had asi _ster, had_. Matt stopped looking at Bruce but beside him, as if someone else was there. “It wasn’t your fault what happened, you made the right decision-”

“Matt, what the fuck are you talking about?” Adam noticed how upset Bruce was, his words poisonous and his tongue sharp. Everyone else was quietly seeing the scene in front of them.  Matt leaned forwards towards boyfriend and whispered.

“ _Do you believe in angels? I wanna be one when I leave_ ” and Bruce felt his hair stood up and he shivered because could hear his sister’s small voice, weak from her sickness, asking that with a smile of her face. Matt didn’t have a reason to know _that_ but there they were. “Don’t worry about her anymore and stop blaming yourself for something you couldn’t have possibly stop. She told me she’s… happy.”

The words took effect when Matt saw some of the arrows on Bruce’s shoulder vanish. Matt took a deep breath and closed his eyes and let himself rest on Lawrence’s side, who had his arms around his shoulders. He felt someone sitting on the side and he felt Sean’s soft hand on his arm, caressing him softly.

“She left?” Matt opened his eyes when he heard Sean’s soft question and she wasn’t there anymore.

“She left,” he answered back, drowning himself on his boyfriends soft touches.

It took Bruce a week to stop tiptoeing around Matt and to tell him that he believed him.

It took the other boys a Marked person dying and Matt knowing it before it happened to believe him.

It was a week later when he started talking to them about the spirits that, with the time, they had become friends and that Matt stills visits the cemetery to talk to them.

It took them a while to get used to the idea that their boyfriend wasn’t really _normal_.

(After that, his magic just showed itself to them

And they fell in love for him once again.)

-

-

When October started, Matt knew this wasn’t going to be good time for him.

Halloween, All Saint’s and All Soul’s Days were the worst for him: it didn’t matter what hour it was, there would be souls of any kind walking around, the arrows and the ribbons would increase their glow and the incomprehensible noise of the souls would make Matt feel sick and dizzy for days.

Last year wasn’t that bad but when the first of October fell over them, Matt felt weaker.

He thought that maybe it was the combination of the red moon, that night the spirits were restless. His boyfriends noticed the change on him but neither of them brought it up, thinking that maybe he was just tired of that day’s work day.

When the third came up in the calendar, Matt started having nightmares.

He usually woke up sweating and nothing else, he would shrug the feeling off and go back to sleep.

Yet, with the nights progressing, he would squirm on the bed, waking himself up with a scream on his throat and waking his boyfriends along. Matt felt so bad for them, he apologized over and over again under their hushed tones and warm touches, ignoring their murmurs telling him that everything would be alright.

The nightmares stopped being bad dreams to become reality.

Matt saw things that weren’t there.

He saw cockroaches walking around Adam’s body, over his shirts, and crawling around his skin as if it was their home. He saw flowers growing up in Lawrence’s hair when he slept, they grew so wide and tall that Matt couldn’t see his face and thought _oh god, is he breathing?_ He could see James’ face with spots of blood that appeared out of nowhere and it was so strange seeing him smile with the droplets of blood dripping from his cheek and down his jaw.

Around the thirteen Matt wasn’t feeling that bad but he still felt weak.

They were packing everything up after a long day at work when Matt got up from his chair and suddenly, the spirits’ noise became so loud that knocked him down to the floor. He came back to himself and realized that Adam and Sean were helping him to get up from the floor and the mumbled voices of his boyfriends surrounded him. He was sitting on the couch when Joel pushed a cup of water on his hand.

“Are you okay?” Bruce asked him, sitting beside him, his hand caressing Matt’s hair.

“I’m alright” and he was saying the truth, now he was alright. He was sipping on his water when Matt heard something and looked up at the ceiling. It was wide and probably occupied every single inch that the ceiling had, its blue hue was bright and it had white spots as eyes. All of them looked up, trying to find what was Matt seeing. “There’s a rattlesnake in the ceiling.”

“Where?!” Joel’s hands flew to James’ bicep, holding it tightly while searching for the snake.

Matt chuckled at his boyfriend reaction but shook his head. “It’s just a spirit. It’s already leaving.”

Maybe it was strange that one of your boyfriends saw spirits and had magic, but neither of them did a double take. They continued to check on him on their way home and that night, they spent most of their time talking about Halloween and spirits and videogames and parties and maybe they were a little tipsy and they ended up making out in the living room and Matt couldn’t ask for a better.

He couldn’t sleep that night and Lawrence seemed to notice, yet he didn’t mention it until he heard everyone’s deep breathings and soft snores. “Is there any spirit in the house, Matt?”

“In the house? No but,” he shifted on his spot until he was facing Lawrence, the other man’s hand under his shirt, caressing his skin unconsciously. “There’s always a three legged cat roaming around our front door.”

Lawrence chuckled at that and mumbled something about how that explained why Matt always left a bowl with water in the front porch. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled in response and curled closer to Lawrence, humming softly. “I’m going to be a bother these next few days-”

“You are not and never be a bother,” Lawrence interrupted him, pressing soft kisses on his boyfriend’s forehead. Matt didn’t say anything back but wrapped his arm around Lawrence’s side, his finger’s grabbing his shirt, ignoring the arrows that were piercing his own skin.

(And maybe Matt wasn’t even done with October

And maybe he felt useless and worthless and just luggage on his boyfriend’s hands

But they were there, curious about the spirits and helping him through everything.

He was so lucky.)

-

-

The next few days, Matt found new things surrounding him.

There were precious rocks like onyx and obsidian on the desks around the office, along with candles in the shelves behind him. People found it strange but everyone pulled it off as if it was decorations for Halloween or for something they were recording. Matt didn’t even mention it when the same thing started happening around the house but he felt, somehow, more calm.

When the sixteen came around, Matt started to feel as if there was something on his throat.

Sean commented on it by the seventh time Matt had cleared his throat when they were recording Open Haus but before he could come up with an excuse, Joel was already asking him if he was coming down with something. All of them turned around, watching him, and Matt only mumbled an _I’m alright_.

That night, the feeling got worse and the boys got worried.

Matt got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen, searching for a cup of water, trying to sooth the feeling. He stopped drinking when he felt his chest tighten so suddenly he had to hold himself on the counter. The next time he coughed, he felt something trying to come out of his body.

He was going to be sick.

Lawrence was walking into the kitchen to check on Matt but he was quickly pushed away by him, running to the closest bathroom. He wasn’t sure how he made it without spilling his guts everywhere but the toilet bowl was suddenly on his face and his mouth and throat burned and he was shaking and crying and, oh god.

When he had a moment to collect himself, he moved away from the bowl. To his boyfriends, he was throwing up everything he had eaten and his body hasn’t digested yet, but in front of him, there were only dead flowers and foliage.

Matt jumped at Adam’s touch but quickly relaxed when he saw his boyfriend’s face. “I’m throwing up flowers,” he said, voice rough and coming out almost painful. “I’m throwing up dead _fucking_ flowers” and even when Adam wanted to say that he wasn’t, that he was alright, he didn’t say anything and just pressed his back against the cold tiles of the wall and pulled Matt into a hug.

Joel was standing under the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest and a worried expression on his face. Adam gave him and look before returning all his attention to Matt.

On the twenty-third came around, Matt felt alright, as if the past few days hadn’t happen at all.

Maybe it was because he was doing things without knowing.

All of them were hanging on the living room one dark evening, doing different things. James got up from his spot in the couch, moving a half sleep Sean to search of a bottle of water in the kitchen but, when he was walking back he noticed a purple glow in the dark of their hallway.

He walked carefully to the hall and when he turned the corner, he was left speechless. “What the f-?” 

Purple crystal were everywhere, floating around the hall with stuff inside of them: a framed picture of them, a few of the plants that were around the house, another insignificant stuff. James looked at the master bedroom and he noticed that there were some stuff levitating around like shoes and some clothes.

James couldn’t believe it and he was almost afraid to move.

Yet, he walked back to the living room and shook Sean awake and, with him, he woke up Bruce too. Adam, Lawrence and Joel looked up from what they were doing to see James’ wide smile. “You have to see this.”

Sean was more sleep than awake but when he saw the purple light decorating their hallway and part of some of their rooms, he had to stop short. “Holy shit,” he laughed, walking carefully so he didn’t hit any of the shapes. Soon enough, Bruce was mumbling the same and when James came back to the living room, everyone was with them but Matt.

“He’s unbelievable,” Joel mumbled, his fingers touching the crystal carefully, making it spin on itself.

The purple shapes were crowded around the door of their office at home and Adam mumbled that Matt had been working on something in there. Lawrence was the first to walk in that direction, Sean following behind.

All of them were absorbed by the lights when they heard Sean calling them. “What now?” Bruce asked, frown on his face. They walked to the office and noticed that their two boyfriends were looking up.

“Okay, now that’s really weird.” James crossed his arms and sighed, his eyes fixed on Matt’s form pressed against the ceiling; he was snoring softly and James wasn’t sure how the fuck he was sleeping that deeply. “How we get him down here?”

Adam was already getting up in the couch, standing, his hands touching Matt’s shirt. He didn’t need to say anything because Bruce was already on his side, both of them pulling him out of the ceiling and into their arms. He levitated for a few seconds and when both of them had him secure preventing him from an abrupt fall, Matt’s body let itself fall.

They heard glass breaking in the hall and some heavy things falling.

“Well,” Lawrence started, seeing Joel crossing his arms. “I guess we can’t let him sleep by himself.”

“Take him to bed, I’d clean it up.”

Adam and Bruce did their best to get down from the couch without moving too much but Matt blinked, mumbling a question. Bruce pressed him to his chest and Adam kissed his brow sweetly, telling him that he shouldn’t worry and that he would go back to sleep. Matt followed instructions almost immediately.

They didn’t have more incidents since they didn’t let him sleep alone.

(Yet, the purple crystals appeared every now and then.)

-

-

On the twenty-eighth, Matt fell sick again.

They could noticed on his face, on his tired eyes, on how much effort he put into his editing, as if it was difficult for him. Matt looked at them squinting, as if they were too bright too see, as if they hurt him. It wasn’t often that he ran to the bathroom, mumbling how he kept throwing up dead flowers but when he did, everyone worried and tried to make him feel better even when they knew that they couldn’t do anything.

It was when the thirtieth hit that shit went down.

Bruce woke up early that morning and, after a trip to the bathroom and back, he walked down to the kitchen. He was waiting for the coffee machine when he noticed noise on his ears- he couldn’t really distinguish anything from the noise, it was just there, a soft hum in  the back of his mind.

He didn’t think about it too much until Joel walked into the kitchen.

Both of them jumped at each other’s sights and Joel gasped loudly.

“What the fuck are those?” He asked, pointing over Bruce’s shoulders. Bruce asked him the same, pointing at the arrows tangled up on Joel’s hair. “What the fuck is happening-” When Adam entered in the kitchen, Joel had to do a double take on him because _he had an arrow on his_ throat _, how he was alive?_

Matt was the last one to wake up and found all his boyfriends in the kitchen, staring at each other as if they were their worst fears, and he didn’t need to put a feet into the room for all of them to look him back.

“What is happening, Matt?” James asked, his fingers pointing at his own ribbons and at Lawrence’s arrows sticking out of his arms and abdomen. Matt sighed and sat down: he knew this was going to happen, he knew that they had been exposed to him way too much, he knew that they were going to freak out but he also knew that he couldn’t do anything to stop this until everything was over.

“Those are your problems, your insecurities,” he started, thanking Joel for the cup of tea he got him. Matt tried to explain them what those were, how he always saw them, what was the noise, that they would see spirits and how they would see everything he sees until it ended.

“That’s why you have been squinting every time you see us? Because of the… arrows?” Sean asked and Matt nodded.

“You had been so worried about me lately that your arrows had grown,” he mumbled, looking at his tea. He was silent for a few moments, not daring to look at their eyes. “I’m sorry you have to go through this, it’s my fault. I should have left for a few days until-”

“No,” Adam stopped him. “This month had been rough for you, you can’t be alone when all of this is happening.”

Matt smiled at him and reached for his hand, yet Adam had to do a double take when he felt Matt’s hand being not so soft as always. When he turned it around, it looked as if his skin had been burnt, blue holes appearing on his palm.

“What happened to you?” All the guys were mumbling and Matt just shrugged, telling him that it was something he got with the time.

(He didn’t dare to say it was because of the times he had taken their arrows away from them, untying their ribbons and throwing away the leaves from their head. They didn’t need to know that.)

Their drive to work was really interesting.

All of them had their eyes glued to the windows, looking the people walking down the street, noticing some people with ribbons and arrows, some Marked walking down the street that James and Lawrence were counting, making Bruce scream at them that it wasn’t very nice. Sean gasped when the spirits started appearing on the streets, blue hue people scaring his pants off.

Joel almost screamed when he saw the rattlesnake on their ceiling, his head following Matt closely, with a curious look. “Don’t worry, he’s not going to hurt anyone,” he mumbled and he gave a soft smile to the snake before it curled itself on the ceiling.

(The boys gained a lot of respect for Matt:

the noise was sometimes unbearable, the souls were glowing so bright that sometimes it hurt and

seeing dead people almost every day wasn’t easy.)

-

-

The thirty-one hit and everything was normal, the Saturday was quiet and usual as ever.

It was quiet until the sun started to set and the lights from the houses were being turn on, along with the pumpkin lanterns and the decorations on the outside. In the street, they could feel the strange ambient that had been stewing there since yesterday. All of them could still see spirits and the noise was making them feel queasy.

It was Joel who noticed it first.

“There’s someone outside,” he mumbled, getting up from his spot in the couch and walking to the backyard. There was an woman with orange hair, a white light over her head, and her skin had a blue hue that they had been seeing lately –she was just staring there, looking between them and outside their fence.

Bruce followed him behind and opened the back door, looking at her in silence. He could feel Joel’s hand on his shirt, holding him tight, and soon enough Adam appeared behind them. Joel called the rest of them, not taking his eyes off of her.

Lawrence was the last one to appear, hair wild and eyes wide. “Where’s Matt?” His question was full with worry and that didn’t set well to any of them. “I can’t find him.”

“What do you mean you can’t find-?”

“Guys,” Sean said and they noticed that the woman was looking at them, her hand extender and her finger pointing at the distance. All of them were quiet before Sean whispered, “do you know where he is?” She opened her mouth but unintelligible noise came out of her but all of them took it as a yes. She didn’t move from her spot but they did, running around the house gathering jackets and keys, putting on shoes and taking their phones.

When Sean looked back through the glass back door, she was nowhere to be seen.

The walk down the street was almost difficult: between the children dressed up and the souls walking down between them, they couldn’t walk without having to look away in time to time.

After a few blocks, they saw the cemetery and it was nothing they had seen before.

There was souls walking around, talking, laughing, as if it was a party, and how Matt explained to them, it was indeed a party: they had the opportunity to walk around earth of a while, without feeling any weight holding them down to where they belonged.  Candles where decorating some tombstones along with flowers but some of them had sugar skulls, food, toys and yellow flowers lying beside them.

Bruce felt Lawrence’s hand on his arm and when he turned around to see him, he noticed that many of the souls that they left behind them were observing something in the distance. “What’s happening?” He asked aloud but he knew that all of them knew the same as him.

At the top of a small hill, along the path, was a mausoleum made of gray stone and the door looked so tall even when it was just half open. There were some shadows coming inside of the place, the souls were looking at it almost afraid and Adam was the first one to know why.

The door opened slowly and all of them could see the red soul appearing in their vision, kneeling. It had a face but neither of them could describe his features, it was as if he didn’t have one, and his horns were black and it reminded them of a bull.

Sean gasped and the softest voice he called Matt’s name.

Matt was lying on the floor of the mausoleum, the red soul’s hand on his chest, pulling something out of their boyfriend who let out a pained noise. A blue light escaped from Matt and floated over the red soul’s hand, moving its flame quickly, as if it was desperate.

Bruce was thinking what they should do, what they sh _ould do, what they should do_ , but Joel was quicker than him. Something flew by them and Joel was soon standing in front of them, his hand burning and an arrow less on his hair. “Leave him alone!”

Every soul was looking at them and now, the red soul noticed their presence. It stood over Matt and opened his mouth to let out a noise that was so different from what they had got used to, so loud and so muffled; all of them thought of the roar as a pained noise, since now the arrow was sticking on his chest. Soon enough, the souls were running away from there and the red soul charged forward.

Bruce was quick and pushed Sean and pulled Joel along with him, moving away from the red soul’s path. They hid behind a headstone and when he peaked over, he noticed his other three boyfriends hiding behind some stones.

At some point, arrows were being flung at the red soul, sticking to his body, marking its red skin with blue and white patches. The blue flame was still on his hand, clutched between his long and strange fingers, and when Adam threw his long arrow, it hit its hand.

The flame fell down and rolled around the floor, next to Sean, who picked it up and clutched against his chest, mumbling soft words to it as if it was a person. The red soul noticed it and charged towards the tombstone where Sean was.  Bruce and Joel were too distant from him and they couldn’t pull him to a safe place and the only thought that went through their minds was _that’s it._

Sean closed his eyes and waited for it.

A loud noise came from behind him and he flinched yet nothing hit him. When he looked back, he recognized the rattlesnake hissing at the soul, his shake loud and his body ready to attack. Sean didn’t remember the snake being that blue or his eyes being that white and bright. The snake jumped on the soul before it could move again and pressed his fangs into it. The noise that came out from the red soul was even louder than before to the point that it shook the mausoleum and put some candles out.

James looked around and noticed the blue souls running towards the red soul, their hands white and determinate expression on their faces. All of them disappeared under the moonlight and down the hill yet they could still hear the muffled pained noise from the red soul.

Adam was the first one to get up and move towards the mausoleum, his body still shaking. All of them followed behind him, opening the door, noticing the few candles still light up in there. Matt wasn’t moving and from that angle, Adam thought he wasn’t breathing either.

Lawrence quickly kneeled beside Matt, checking on him. He noticed red marks on his arms, the same color as the red soul’s skin, and he knew that under his shirt, Matt would have many more. “Where’s the flame?” Asked James, worried expression on his face.

Sean kneeled beside Lawrence, his hands burning but still pressed his chest. “I have it here” and when he leaned forwards and moved his hands, the blue flame was still, motionless and it was smaller than before. He lied it on Matt’s chest and as if it was a cat, it nestled on him, when Lawrence pressed his hand against him, it didn’t put any resistance and just melted on their boyfriend’s chest.

Matt took a deep breath the red marks seemed to disappear.

Yet, he didn’t wake up.

“What do we do now?” Adam mumbled, still standing, looking down at Matt.

Bruce looked outside the mausoleum and noticed a soul standing there, a man with blue skin and white eyes and, when both of them looked at each other, the soul mouthed the words that Bruce repeated next, aloud. “Home” and that’s what they did.

They walked down the cemetery path with Matt on James’ back and they noticed how the souls were looking at them, some of them with their hats on their chests, some ladies moving their tissues at the wind and some of them smoking pipes.

(The man was walking beside him, quietly.)

-

-

When Matt was in bed, the woman and the man sat beside him, observing him in silence.

James was sitting on a chair they had in their bedroom, observing them back. At some point in the night, he fell asleep, his head leaning against the wall and his arms crossed over his chest.

It was Lawrence who woke him up the next morning, noticing the empty spots on the bed and realizing that they couldn’t see the arrows or ribbons any more. James also noticed that Matt was curled up on the bed, just as he usually sleep and he thought of it as a good sign.

Sunday afternoon was when Matt opened his eyes.

Adam was lying next to him, his arms wrapped around him carefully when he felt his boyfriend’s body moving. He looked down and found those brown eyes looking at him, sleepily. “Adam?”

He exclaimed and wrapped his arms tighter around Matt, pressing kissed on his face. The boys appeared in the bedroom a few minutes later after listening to the voices coming from it. They hugged Matt and kissed him lovingly, and their hands not wanting to move away from him.

When they asked what happened that night, Matt only answered that everything was fuzzy on his mind and that he couldn’t exactly remember what happened. “I only saw red,” he mumbled. They didn’t push the question any further, instead, they told him the amazing thing that happened the night before.

Matt was sitting with his back against the headboard, resting against Adam, while he smiled at Joel and Sean’s passionate storytelling.

Everything was becoming normal until Matt tensed and became wide eyed for a moment.  “What’s wrong?” Bruce asked, noticing the sudden panic on his face. Matt’s hands flew towards Bruce’s shoulders, Lawrence’s body, James’ arms, he looked at Adam and Sean and let out a shaken sigh.

“It’s gone,” Matt said, tears forming on his eyes. “I cannot see them anymore.”

The boys shared a sad look between and told him that his flame was smaller than before when it came back to his body. He didn’t say anything and just shook his head, shrugged his shoulders.

“I guess I’ve to get used to normal again,” he smiled and felt Adam’s arm wrapping on his shoulder, pulling him closer and pressing a kiss to his temple. Matt just leaned at the touch, holding the tears from falling.

(He didn’t want to be normal, he hasn’t been normal in years.

He didn’t know how to be something he was not.)

-

-

Weeks passed and Matt’s abilities never returned.

The first days were hard because he was quieter than usual. They noticed how he would come to them and touch where the arrows and ribbons and leaves were at some point in his life. Yet, with the time, he grew used to the cold void on his chest and his hands didn’t have that tingling sensation anymore.

It was a month later when he was at work and felt a cold wind hitting him. He thought that maybe it was Bruce turning down the thermostat, making the office even colder but when he saw, Bruce was still watching something in Joel’s computer.

Matt heard a hiss and felt a pair of eyes watching him. He turned his head towards the intern’s desk and noticed something beside him: the rattlesnake was faint but it was there, his blue face and his white glowing eyes appearing in front of Matt. He observed it quietly until he saw the snake’s tongue peeking through his mouth and then hitting his face, the warm burning sensation on his cheek.

He watched the snake move up the wall and lie quietly on the ceiling, fast asleep. Matt was still looking up at the ceiling when he felt a hand on his shoulder and heard Lawrence’s voice calling him. His boyfriends were standing around him, looking at him worryingly.

“You might have to take the possibility that they will never come back,” Joel said and all of them shot him harsh looks that he answered putting his hands up in surrender.

Matt shrugged his shoulders. “It’s truth,” he answered. “Anyway, are we getting lunch? I already finished editing The Know” and he smiled –yet any of them noticed that his smile got to his eyes and seemed more cheerful than never.

That night, he woke up by strange sounds outside his window. Anyone in their right mind would be afraid, would wake up his boyfriends and notify them of the sound but Matt felt alright, he felt safe and there wasn’t any hesitation to get out of bed at that hour.

He did his best to get out from his boyfriend’s arms and tiptoed on the bed to not wake them up, then walked to the front door and opened it, finding himself with an alive neighborhood, as if it didn’t matter it was two in the morning. Kids were running down the street, smiling, a dog following behind. In the porches of the other houses, there were many people sitting and watching the kids, talking to each other but Matt couldn’t hear anything –that sweet unintelligible noise hitting his ears, making him alive too.

He sat down on the small stairs of the house and observed everything in front of him in silence: he observed their blue hue that their skin had, the soft glow in their chests, the muffled noises that came out from their mouths, sounds that he couldn’t really focus on.

A man with white eyes and blue skin appeared beside him and Matt smiled at him; the man smiled back and his expression was full with surprise. The man sat down on the stairs beside him, observing him, before mouthing the words _welcome home_. The three legged cat appeared at his feet, curling around his leg and Matt petted it softly, enjoying the sensation.

The warm inside his chest returned along with the tingling on his fingertips by the time he returned to bed.

When Matt walked down the stairs to meet his boyfriends in the kitchen the next morning, the first thing he noticed were the blue arrows sticking out of Bruce’s shoulders and the path of fallen leaves coming from Sean’s hair. He didn’t mention anything about it but the smile on his face brought unease to his boyfriends, making Matt shake his head at their worrisome comments.

All of them were sitting on the table when Lawrence got up to get something from the cabinet but something fell from it. He tried to catch it but stopped when he noticed it was levitating. Matt had his fingers extended towards the cup that fell, smile bright on his face.

Lawrence took the cup on his hands and Matt looked at all of them. “Too spooky,” James laughed, pulling Matt’s shirt and pressing a warm kiss on his cheek, making him laugh.

(Matt didn’t know how to be normal and it seemed like

the universe didn’t want him to be normal either.)

 

**Author's Note:**

> Be safe if you go out tonight and have lots of fun! <3
> 
> [@somespontaneouswriting](http://somespontaneouswriting.tumblr.com/) in tumblr!


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